When the shaking finally stopped and the buildings of Veslil settled into their new positions, the sound of screaming echoed through the underground chamber the town now found itself in. Hundreds of people screamed in terror and agony. Mercer had never heard anything so horrifying. Decades of fighting and experience gave Mercer the fortitude to keep his head through it all, but the screaming shook him to his very soul. Mercer just took deep breaths and waited for the screaming to finally stop. Within minutes the screaming did stop. If people had been screaming from fear or from being crushed by rubble, they wouldn't have stopped calling out after only a few minutes. Something was wrong.

Mercer got up. He was pleasantly surprised by how injured he wasn't. His old body would talk to him if he so much as sat down in his chair too hard. Ophelia's body was like a tank by comparison. Mercer walked over to Keith. He was slumped on the ground as if he were unconscious, but when Mercer rolled him over he found that Keith was just still. He looked straight ahead and didn't react to Mercer at all. It was like he was actually in shock. Unsettling as Keith had been, it was even weirder to see him still.

"What the hell is happening to the city?!" Mercer bellowed. Keith didn't so much as turn his head. Mercer retrieved his Falchion and brought it to Keith's neck. "If you had anything to do with this?!"

Keith didn't react at all. "My town." He said weakly in a flat and monotone voice. "My people. It's my job to protect them."

"What?!"

Keith's lip trembled. "It's my job to protect them, and they're all gone. My people."

"They're not your people to rule!" Keith didn't react at all to Mercer's aggression. He seemed to actually be in shock. Mercer took his sword away from Keith and knelt beside him. "You… you know what's happening here don't you?"

"Yes."

"The same thing that happened to Southtown?"

Keith looked horrified. "This happened to Southtown?!"

"You didn't know?"

"No!"

"We were just there. Everything was gone. The buildings were sunken into the ground."

Keith's head slumped back down. "Yeah… I know what's doing this."

"What?!"

Keith rose to his feet. "When Gangrel and Aversa negotiated humanity's surrender, Grima made the Risen disappear. Grima didn't get rid of them though. Grima forced them underground, and over time they mutated."

"Huh?!"

"They're called Tunnellers. They live underground, and they've spent so much time there that they go blind in the light. They prey on people, and that's not a metaphor. They eat people. Left on their own they can depopulate entire regions. They dig complicated tunnel systems under towns and cities. They do it slowly so that nobody knows what's happening. When they're ready to attack, they widen the tunnels just enough to cause the ground to collapse. The settlement falls into their underground cavern, and as soon as it does the Tunnellers emerge from their tunnels and attack. They kill everyone, and then they fill in all the sinkholes so that there's no trace of what happened."

"What?! Why haven't I ever heard of something like this before?!"

"They've destroyed cities in Ferox before, but there's never been a Ylissean attack! The Grimleal must have brought them here."

"If you know so much about them then why didn't you prepare?! Why didn't you evacuate the town?!"

"How was I supposed to know?! There's never been an attack this far south before!"

"Well this happened to Southtown a few days ago! Are you telling me no one from there came here to warn you?!"

"Nobody ever survives Tunneller attacks." Keith sat back down on the floor. "The screaming stopped because everyone in the streets is dead. They're making their way into the buildings as we speak. They'll be in here soon." Keith looked up at Mercer. "We're going to die. Your life is going to end here, Chrom. I'm sorry. I just wanted to help."

Mercer kicked Keith in the shoulder. "Get up!"

"Why? It's over." Keith's voice was still monotone. "My people. I was supposed to protect them. My people."

Mercer grabbed Keith by his collar and tried to force him to his feet. Ophelia's body wasn't strong enough to lift Keith, so Mercer settled for kneeling over him. "Listen here! It's your fault we're stuck here. Ophelia and Soleil are not going to die because of you!"

"Where are they now?"

"I left them in their cell with the key."

"Let's hope they lock the door. I may have saved their life for now, but we're all doomed now."

Mercer grabbed Keith's neck and pressed down. Even then Keith didn't react much. "I'm not leaving them. They have their whole damn lives ahead of them. They're not going to die because they went with me. Damnit they are not going to die!"

Keith gave a weak smile. "Looking to make up for your past mistakes, Chrom?"

Mercer punched Keith in the face. He briefly winced in pain, but then returned to his blank stare. "Listen, kid! You don't like me and I sure as hell don't like you, but we're going to work together to get out of this!"

"You misunderstand. I like you. I just wanted to help you."

"Knock it off! You tried to kidnap us! You had my knee broken! I should do to you everything that you've done to other people, but I just want to save Ophelia and Soleil. We're getting through this, Keith, and you're going to help me."

"Alright." Keith got up. "Alright. Let's barricade the door. Help me get that desk."

"No we need to get to Ophelia and Soleil!"

"If they're in the cell then they're safe. We can't go through the building now. Tunnellers will be everywhere. We'll have to wait for them to finish eating the soldiers you killed. When they leave, we'll be able to move through the building."

"So what do we do until then?"

"Let me tell you about my organization. We could be allies."

"You're a tyrant."

"You don't know us."

"I've seen plenty of men like you."

"Just help me with the desk."

Keith and Mercer barricaded the door with whatever they could find. Keith wouldn't let Mercer remove the body of his personal guard for fear of it attracting Tunnellers, so Mercer retreated to the other side of the room. Keith stayed by his guard, occasionally moving her severed head around with his foot. Mercer couldn't tell it if was some kind of mourning or if Keith was angry at her inability to stop him. Either way he couldn't stand it anymore. He decided to talk to Keith, if only to get him to stop. "So… what's your story, Keith? Why are you like… this?"

Keith walked over to Mercer. For the first time since the building fell into the ground, Keith was confident in his movements. He had been preparing what he was going to say. "I was born to peasants just trying to make rent for the Grimleal landlords, same as most people in the world. My father had his share of vices. He fell into drugs, gambling, and drinking. Eventually he couldn't pay the rent anymore, so the Grimleal made an example of him. Then they took my mother and I as slaves to pay off the debt. This is all just what my mother told me by the way. My father died long before I was old enough to remember things. I'd been a slave since I could remember anything." Keith eyed Mercer carefully to make sure he was listening. "But wait, it gets better. My mother and I were treated like property. They did whatever they wanted to us, and I mean whatever they wanted. My mother was a proud woman. No matter what they did to her, her spirit wouldn't break. One day they beat her so badly that everything else broke instead. When they were done they just left her there, and I went up to her. I was only eight years old at the time. In my childish stupidity I thought she might be okay. I nudged her to get back up. I cried for her to get back up. I finally managed to roll her over." Keith trembled and his voice began to quake, and his confidence disappeared. "There was MEAT coming OUT of her FACE!" Tears rolled down Keith's cheeks, but he didn't stop. He only seemed to inspire himself to talk more. "That was the end of her enslavement, but it sure as hell wasn't the end of mine. They kept me for years. My entire childhood. I realized that it was never going to end. The only thing I had in the world was myself. Nothing was going to help me! I had to get out of there myself. Even if I had no chance, even if I would surely die trying to escape, I had to try. When I was about thirteen or fourteen, I waited until one of the men took me alone for a… private session. I took a knife I had smuggled away and I slit his throat when his guard was down. As I felt the warm spray of blood on me, I realized that they weren't invincible… and that there was no going back. I made a run for it. I cut anyone that got in my way. I think I injured four or five men, but they overwhelmed me. They beat me and beat me. They wouldn't kill me outright. No, they just had to beat me. They needed revenge for what I'd done to them, as if I was the one who had wronged them. They didn't kill me, but I was too badly injured to be taken back. They just dumped me into the wilderness and left me to die of exposure. I didn't die though. Life clung to me, and I dragged myself to the nearest settlement."

Mercer didn't know what to say. "Keith I… I…"

"That's when it happened. That's when I first learned about her."

"Lucina?"

"The nearest settlement was Shepherd's Folly."

"Shepherd's Folly?" Mercer was afraid of what Keith was getting at. "W-what is that?!"

Keith smiled faintly. "Oh you poor man. You don't know, do you? It's where they died, Chrom. It's where they died thirty years ago. It's a tourist attraction."

"They turned it into a damn tourist attraction?!" Mercer yelled.

"Yeah. You can learn all about them there. It's where I learned about her. After everything that happened to her, she had every right to just lie down and die. She didn't break though. She didn't just survive, she tried to change the world. She didn't succeed, but she tried. I figured that if she could have the strength to try and change the world after everything that she went through, then I could too. All I had in life was myself, but I could fight for a better world. Through sheer force of will I could make the world a better place for everybody. I could continue her work. I could follow in her legacy. Keith shook his head. "No. I can continue where she left off. I can fight to fix the world."

For once Mercer looked at Keith contemplatively. He saw past his insanity and the painful reminder of his daughter. He saw that Keith was trying to be a good person deep down, even if he was very broken. "Keith… I know you think you're doing the right thing, but you have to see that what you're doing is wrong. People are suffering because of you. You have no right to enforce your will on others like this."

"I have the responsibility! If you have the ability to help the world, and you choose not to, then you're part of the problem. I'm doing what heroes do. The great heroes of history were violent. Do you think Medeus and Grima were defeated with diplomacy? No! The heroes fought and slew their enemies! They used violence to impose their will on the world. They were violent people, but history remembers them as heroes because they changed the world for the better. I'm going to save this world from the Grimleal. From evil. Crime is like a cancer. It builds and builds on itself and ruins the civilization that hosts it. You can't rehabilitate crime anymore than you can rehabilitate a sickness. Sickness needs to be removed from the body, and crime needs to be removed from civilization."

"You don't get to decide what is evil, and what isn't!"

"That's what the heroes of legend did! They didn't rely on systems to tell them what was right and wrong. They decided for themselves. A strong man fought to better the world, and violently defeated anyone who tried to stop him. Does that not describe Marth or Alm? The great fantasy of history isn't that great men and women were able to change the world themselves, because that did happen. The fantasy is that people could change the world through violence and be kind and noble. Humans are flawed, and humans who devote their lives to violence tend to not be stable. These great heroes were probably capable of horrible things, but history doesn't remember that."

"I can't prove that wrong, Keith, but I know that isn't true. The men and women from legends are remembered as heroes because they were good people."

"No! It's because they were strong. The great masses of the people more easily remember big things than small things, and people remember actions more than thoughts. People remember them for what they did, not for what they thought. If you kill one man, you're a murderer. Kill a hundred and you're a warrior. Kill one hundred thousand and you're a conqueror. For whatever reason, conqueror is considered to be a more positive word than murderer. The heroes of legends conquered! Marth didn't just defeat Medeus, he united the continent. Alm united all of Valm. The First Exalt created the Halidom of Ylisse. These heroes made their own systems. They imposed their will on thousands of people. History remembers them as good people for it. Morality isn't to be passed down by systems and tired old men. It's to be decided by the people. Good can't mean letting psychopaths and tyrants run free. I have the strength to change the world, so I impose my will to stop evil and better the world. I fight to give people a better future. I fight to make sure that no one has to suffer through what I went through. It's what the heroes of legend would have done. It's what Lucina would have done."

Mercer thought about his next words very carefully. He was getting a glimpse of who Keith was, and if he was careful he could try to show Keith what he was really doing to the world. If he wasn't careful he could send him on another rant. "Keith, I know you think that what you're doing is good for the world, but violence needs to be tempered with empathy and restraint. You think you're making the world a better place by killing criminals, but you're no better than they are. You absorb some of their evil and spread it around yourself."

Keith just laughed. "I do what I do out of necessity. This world stinks. It stinks like a sewer. How do you clean a sewer? You wash it out. You don't rehabilitate the stink. Some people just need to be killed. I mean how could you have rehabilitated the Grimleal, or Grima, or Medeus? Besides who are you to talk down to me because I kill people who deserve it? You killed. You devoted your whole life to violence."

"And not a day goes by that I don't regret it. Even then, I didn't kill unless it was necessary. I gave my enemies every chance to surrender or even join us. I showed compassion. Many of the Shepherds were former enemies. We had Plegians, Valmese soldiers, criminals. I gave them a chance to be better. You can't just kill people because they've made mistakes. You don't have the right to make that call. To take a life forever. When someone dies, that's it. You take away everything someone is, and everything they were going to be. You can't say that they deserve to die because of something they did in the past. You shouldn't kill unless it can't be avoided."

"Well your method didn't work did it? You didn't save the world did you? It's time for me to try my way."

Mercer shook his head. He spoke in a soft tone. "Oh Keith, you're a very broken man aren't you?"

"So are you, old man. So are you."

After what felt like hours had passed, Mercer and Keith finally removed the debris from in front of the door and ventured into the rest of the building. Keith used a lantern to light the way as the two crept through the sunken buillding. Mercer never saw a Tunneller, but the bodies of Keith's soldiers had been torn apart. Very few of them were still intact, and each one was stripped to the bone. Something had been in the building at some point.

Finally the two made their way to the prison. To Mercer's horror, he could hear a clanging and banging noise like something was repeatedly attacking a cell. "Ophelia! Soleil!" Mercer's cries made the banging stop. A few seconds later a black mass materialized in front of Mercer so quickly that he fell over in shock. The only reason why the creature didn't spring on Mercer right then was because the light from Keith's lamp made it wince. Keith wasted no time in dispatching the creature, and Mercer got a good look at it. The Tunnellers looked like Risen, but they were shorter and more wiry. Their skin was a sickly blackish purple color. They didn't have glowing red eyes. They almost looked like they didn't have eyes at all. Only on close inspection could Mercer see that the Tunneller did have eyes, but they were milky like the eyes of someone who had gone blind from an injury.

"Mercer?! Please tell me that's you?!" Mercer recognized his biological voice.

"Ophelia! Soleil!" Mercer and Keith went to their cell and Soleil unlocked the door when Keith shone his light over it.

"That thing was banging on the bars for an hour! What the hell happened?!"

"What happened to Southtown happened here. Creatures called Tunnellers dug underneath the city. We have to get out of here. There are hundreds of them outside."

"Well thanks for saving… wait." Soleil squinted at Keith. "What's that saddle-goose doing with you?!"

"He's not one of them, so he's on our side. We have to work together."

Keith stood up straight. "Hello."

"Why don't you go die in a ditch." Soleil replied. Behind her Ophelia slowly rose to her feet.

"Good to see you again, Mercer. I trust you took good care of my body?"

"Not a scratch. Well… your nose might hurt, but otherwise you'll be fine."

Ophelia performed the body switching ritual again. Immediately both Mercer and her screamed. "Gah! My nose!" Ophelia looked down. "Where are my shoes? What's all this armor?"

"My knee! My damn knee!" Mercer grabbed his own knee. "Ah I forgot how much that hurt!"

"Everything in your body hurts, old man… and your beard is itchy."

"Gods how are we going to get out of here?! There are hundreds of those things out there, and my knee is still broken."

"We can call Minerva." Soleil answered. "Ophelia knows a spell that can summon her."

"You're serious?"

Ophelia nodded. "She can dig through the ground. We'll need to be outside though."

Keith started to walk away. "We'd better be quick then. If we're lucky they'll still have bodies to eat."

The four slowly made their way out of the building and into what remained of the city streets. Ophelia closed her eyes, knelt down, and began casting her spell. A massive golden dragon appeared behind her and roared into the air before disappearing. Ophelia continued to be surrounded by a bright golden light. The light was so bright that it illuminated the cavern for hundreds of meters. The cavern was absolutely filled with Tunnellers and corpses. Almost every corpse was completely stripped bare. Most of the Tunnellers were busy jumping in and out of the buildings looking for food. A few of them picked at the bloodied skeletal corpses scattered around the streets. Some of the skeletons were rather small.

"Uh… ah… Ophelia? Don't open your eyes." Soleil stuttered.

"Well when you say that it makes me want to… open… my… eyes." Ophelia vomited. "GODS! SO MANY BODIES!"

The Tunnellers heard her and immediately charged the group. The light from Ophelia's spell kept them away, but the light began to flicker as Ophelia panicked. Soleil grabbed her and blocked her view of the Tunnellers. "Ophelia! Sweetie! Baby! Finish the spell! I know it's horrible. I know it's horrible! You have to finish the spell or they'll attack!"

Ophelia nodded and knelt down again. The light from her spell intensified and the Tunnellers were driven back, but they didn't stop trying to find a way in. One grabbed a piece of debris to shield its eyes and slowly crept up behind Ophelia. Keith noticed and attacked the Tunneller at the last moment. The Tunneller was driven back, but it managed to knock the mask from Keith's face in the grapple. As if driven by spite, the Tunneller swiped the mask and fled into the darkness. Mercer saw the scuffle and immediately threw himself towards Keith. He was too late, and Keith reacted exactly as Mercer knew he would.

"MY FAAAAACE!"

"Keith!" Mercer yelled for Keith to come back, but Keith ignored him. Keith followed the Tunneller into the shadows, and as soon as he did a dozen Tunnellers followed him. "Keith! Get back here!"

"Just leave him!" Soleil shouted. "Come on, Ophelia!"

Once again Minerva appeared just in time. The wyvern burrowed its way through the dirt and landed in front of the hordes of Tunnellers. Soleil helped Mercer on and then quickly mounted Minerva herself. Ophelia rose to her feet and Soleil pulled her up. "What about Keith?" Ophelia exclaimed.

"Who cares!" Soleil responded. She kicked Minerva repeatedly with her foot. "Takeofftakeofftakeofftakeofftakeoff!" Minerva roared and ascended into the sky, leaving the Tunnellers and Veslil behind.

Mercer, Ophelia, and Soleil eventually had Minerva land on the top of a mesa. Soleil and Mercer began to set up camp as soon as they dismounted, but Ophelia immediately walked towards the edge of the cliff. Soleil and Mercer called to her, but she ignored them. She walked closer to the edge until she made them nervous, and then she sat down with her feet dangling over the cliff. She didn't move again after that.

"Is, is she okay?" Mercer asked Soleil. She shrugged.

"She's never seen violence like that, Mercer. An entire city gone. I'll talk to her." Soleil paused. "But… she does think a lot of you. Maybe she'd appreciate it if you talked to her."

Mercer nodded and walked towards Ophelia. Ophelia didn't turn her head as he approached. "You're uh… you're a little close to the edge there, Ophelia." Ophelia didn't respond at all. She sat completely still. On closer inspection, Mercer noticed that her head was bobbing around, to the point that she seemed to be spasming slightly. "Ophelia?" Mercer walked closer to her. Still she didn't react to him. She just looked aimlessly off into the horizon, her head involuntarily shaking back and forth like she was in a slow shiver. Mercer sat beside her at the edge of the cliff, and Ophelia immediately buried her head in his arm and shivered violently. Mercer almost instinctively hugged her and rocked her back and forth.

"So much death, Mercer." Ophelia stated in a shocked tone. Mercer never realized how much energy Ophelia put into what she said until he heard her voice in a flat tone like this. "I've never seen so much death. Hundreds of people. Dead everywhere. They were everywhere. So much death."

"Hey come on." Mercer almost whispered. "It's alright."

Ophelia broke down completely. She gripped Mercer as tightly as she could and bawled into his shirt. Mercer almost cried out from how tightly she was grabbing him. "THEY WERE EATING THEM! How?! How can something so horrible happen?!" Ophelia sobbed uncontrollably into Mercer. "They're all gone! A whole town! Children! Elderly! EATEN! LIKE INSECTS! HUMAN BEINGS!"

"Hey, hey. Shh. It's okay. It's over now. I've got you."

"But they're gone, Mercer! THEY'RE ALL GONE!"

"There's nothing we can do now. It's alright. It's alright."

For several minutes Mercer and Ophelia sat there holding each other. Mercer slowly rocked Ophelia back and forth, keeping a calm rhythm even as Ophelia shivered and spasmed in his arms, and slowly Ophelia got a hold of herself. When she finally stopped crying, the two just held each other until Ophelia could speak calmly again. "Why?"

"Hmm?"

"Why doesn't this bother you? All those people?"

"I've seen death before. I've seen it many times before. You get used to it. It's horrible, and it's not right, but it's what happens. It doesn't affect you anymore. It's normal to react this way though, Ophelia. I'd be more worried if you didn't feel like this. I've gone through what you're going through."

"R-really?"

"Yes." Mercer collected himself. "When Lucina was born, I couldn't believe it. She was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen." Mercer smiled, but it was a kind of quiet, melancholy smile. "I remember holding her for the first time. She had this goofy expression on her face and a silly smile. She wrapped her tiny little hand around my finger and gripped it as tightly as she could, which wasn't very tightly at all, and I remember thinking to myself, 'How could something this beautiful come from me?' The other Shepherds were there. They smiled warmly at me. They were so happy for me. Oh gods. I was struggling as hard as I could to not break down crying. She was so beautiful. How could… how could she have come from me? How could someone so perfect come from me?" Mercer had to let go of Ophelia. He put his hand around his mouth and struggled to not break down crying in the present. "So when the other Lucina died… oh gods. I remember finding her body. She was soaked in blood. My baby. She… she had no gods-damned arms! She had no arms! She was looking up at me, but she wasn't moving. Her eyes were listless." Mercer was silent for almost a minute. "I just shut down. I didn't think anything. I didn't feel anything. I just shut down. There was nobody there for me, Ophelia. I was all alone." Mercer hugged his grandniece again. "But I'm here for you now." The two went back to holding each other and silently looking out over the horizon.

Eventually Mercer got up, and with Ophelia's assurance that she would be okay, he went to go to Soleil. He found her having some kind of seizure by the camp. "Gaah! Mercer! A little privacy?!"

"What were you doing? Was that some kind of demon summoning ritual?"

"What?! No! I was just practicing my dancing."

"That wasn't any kind of dancing I'm familiar with."

"I've heard it all before, Mercer. Everyone has to be a critic. That's why I practice alone."

"So you like to dance?"

"Yeah. I always have. I'm not very good at it, but I've always wanted to learn."

Mercer smiled faintly. "I know where you get that from."

"Hmm?"

"Your father and grandmother both loved to dance."

"R-really?"

"Yeah. Inigo was shy about it, but he was very good. Your grandmother Olivia-" Mercer paused as his mind flashed back to her. "She was… she was amazing. She had no problem making a living from it. You… well at least you inherited their spirit."

"Uh thanks, I guess."

"Anyways I just came here to check on you. Ophelia is taking all this pretty hard. I guess it doesn't bother you if you're just dancing away?"

Soleil finally stopped the uncoordinated fumbling she tried to pass off as dancing and sighed. "Look I may be young but that doesn't mean I haven't seen some things. Let's just say this isn't the first time I've seen Risen. This isn't even the first time I've seen Risen eat people. I doubt I've seen as much pain as you have in your life Mercer, but I've seen some horrible things. There isn't much we could run into that would faze me anymore." Soleil looked up at Mercer. "Ophelia though… she's something of a princess. Her heart is in the right place. She wants to be a hero and she wants to protect the world. She just hasn't seen hardship like us. Life has thrown its fair share of problems at her, but she hasn't seen things like… that before. Mercer, please protect her."

"I'll protect both of you."

"No! No that's, that's not what I meant. She needs it more. She's more important than me. If she dies then there won't be anyone to perform the Awakening ritual. She needs protecting more than me."

"Soleil! Don't talk like that."

"If something happens, and you have to choose between one of us, choose her. I… I can't let anything happen to her."

"Soleil… do you have… feelings for Ophelia?"

"Well I… I certainly don't mind that outfit of hers."

Mercer frowned. "Hey! That's my grandniece you're talking about."

"Err… oh."

"I'm joking!"

"Ah you got me, old man! I didn't think you had it in you." Soleil sat down on the hard regolith deprived surface of the badlands and rested. "No. Ophelia and I are just friends, and that's really a more meaningful relationship for me. I've had flings before, but not many friends. Before I met Ophelia I never really had someone to always be there for me before. To fight by my side no matter what before. Without Ophelia… I don't know what I'd do.

"What about Caeldori?"

"If you'd asked me that question a week ago I wouldn't have thought much of her. Guess you don't know what you have until it's gone huh?"

"We'll find her, Soleil."

"What about afterwards, Mercer? What will you do then?"

"Well…"

"You want to go home don't you?"

"Well… yeah."

"Ophelia thinks the world of you, you know. She fell in love with those stories Tiki told us. She thinks you're the best hope for saving the world."

"I'm not like that anymore, Soleil."

"Let me finish." Soleil took a deep breath. "I'm not saying this to be mean, Mercer. I'm just telling the truth. Ophelia thinks that your grumpy old man act is just that. An act. She thinks that underneath that rough exterior is the hero that Tiki told her about. She's right about your grumpy old man act, but underneath that rough exterior isn't a hero. Underneath you're a tortured and emotionally fragile man struggling beneath decades of pain and loss." Mercer tried to respond, but he was stunned. He couldn't bring himself to make any kind of noise. "The hero that Ophelia desperately wants is gone, isn't he? I know you don't believe in our cause. I know you just want to live the rest of your life in peace. I know you do want nothing more than to die." Soleil looked Mercer right in the eye. "But Ophelia was right when she was talking to you on Minerva's back. You do still have your love for people. You seemed to care for Conrad. You helped free me. You're helping us find Caeldori. None of us, not even Tiki, has a right to ask anything of you. What I'm trying to say is… is that I'm grateful for the help you've given us. You don't owe us anything. When you leave us, Ophelia is going to be devastated… but I won't look down on you. There's nothing wrong with wanting to live out the rest of your life quietly." Mercer thought about what Soleil said in silence. Her expression made it clear that she really cared for Mercer. He couldn't help but smile warmly back at her. Soleil seemed confused. "You're… you're not angry with me?"

"No. What you said is true. Everything you said is true. Chrom is dead. Tiki won't see it, and Ophelia won't see it… but he's dead. I'm glad you see it." Mercer sat by Soleil and placed his arm around her. "But I'm not going to leave you girls. Not yet. I don't believe in your cause. I don't think the world can be fixed. I won't leave you though. If you need my help, then I'll stand with you. I'll help you find Caeldori. I'll help keep you all safe. I would… I would like nothing more than for you girls to just give up. Start families. Live a life of peace while you still can. You might think in your youth that you should be out there fighting but I promise you, I promise you, that it doesn't make you feel fulfilled. Everyday I wake up with old war wounds talking to me. I live alone because my lifestyle got my family killed. I go to sleep with the faces of the men and women I've killed still looking at me. Violence ruins people, Soleil. It ruined me. If I could do it again, I would have lead. I would have taken the throne after Emmeryn was injured. I would have spent more time with my wife. I would have raised my children. I would have helped the people. I am a failure, and now I want nothing more than to have the things I took for granted back then." Mercer looked warmly at Soleil. "Against my better judgement, I've grown to care for you girls. You're all I have. I would like for you girls to be safe. I'd like for you to stop fighting but… if you won't… I guess I'll just have to protect you myself."

Soleil smiled back, and it didn't seem like the smile she forced herself to carry at all times. This one was heartfelt. "Thank you, old man. Ophelia will ask a lot of you. She'll want to be trained with the Falchion. She'll want to be able to perform the Awakening ritual. She'll want you to lead. Me? I'm just glad you're here at all. Nobody has any right to ask anything of you."

Mercer patted Soleil on the back and rose to his feet. "Come on. Let's go see if Ophelia is feeling any better." Mercer watched as Soleil stood up. "And Soleil?"

"Yeah?"

"We'll find Caeldori. I promise."